r/MurderedByWords • u/Bitter-Gur-4613 • Jan 02 '25

#1 Murder of Week Brutal ratio holy shit

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104.1k Upvotes

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5.1k

u/Eliteguard999 Jan 02 '25

“Five years olds can read” but the age 50+ customers at my grocery store I manage can’t read a sign to save their fucking lives.

1.9k

u/Ordinary_Delay_1009 Jan 02 '25

Half of America is effectively illiterate.

118

u/shawnisboring Jan 02 '25

I wish you weren't basically right...

  • 21% of the country is illiterate
  • 54% of adult Americans read at or below a 6 grade reading level
  • 20% read at such a low level they can't perform jobs that require reading...

62

u/la_noeskis Jan 02 '25

In Germany at least 50% of the population (of age < 40) have at least an english level of B2.

You are cooked.

25

u/justwannabeloggedin Jan 02 '25

I might unintentionally be proving I'm the 21% but what is B2

17

u/hnsnrachel Jan 02 '25

Learners who achieve B2 Upper intermediate level can:

understand the main ideas of complex texts on concrete or abstract topics, including some technical discussions express themselves fluently and spontaneously enough to comfortably communicate with other English speakers produce clear, detailed text on many subjects and explain a complex viewpoint on a topic, including expressing advantages and disadvantages.

From that, it translates to somewhere between 4th and 8th grade reading level, depending on which definitions of reading levels you look at